Green gold, a growing source of income for Morocco

The production of avocados in Morocco has been developing in recent years.
Thanks to its good yield, several farmers are switching crops and moving to avocado cultivation.

STORY-LINE:
It is the harvest season of avocados in Morocco.
In this farm, workers pick three types of avocado: Hass, Fuerte and Zutano.
The production in the farm of El Farissi Hammadi this year has reached 85 tons, compared to only 3 tons when the farm started producing the fruit some 10 years ago.
Avocado, a green gold, has a turnover of 200,000 Moroccan dirhams (about $22,300) per hectare, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Its production in Morocco has increased by 85.2% between 2008 and 2019.
"The soil is suitable here. The climate is also suitable for the avocado tree which is a tropical tree and its original climate is almost like the climate of this region, this is why the cultivation of avocado is successful in this region," says El Farissi Hammadi, owner of an avocado farm.
But the fruit is not meant for the internal market, most of the production is exported.
"In Morocco, there is no culture of consumption of avocado, this is why most categories of avocado, especially the Hass, are intended for export," explains Hammadi.
The country exports to both Europe and some Middle Eastern countries, such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia in addition to Eastern European countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania.
"Avocado prices are either increasing or stable, that guarantees an income, in addition to that, the cultivation of avocado has less problems compared to other crops," says Al Achkar Abdelmoumen, chief executive officer of "Ecomac", an avocado exporting company.
Because of the high margin of profits, farmers in Morocco have been switching their crops to the cultivation of avocado.
The first avocados in Morocco were used on an experimental basis in the late 1980s in the Agadir region.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, there are more than 1,300 hectares planted with avocado trees in Morocco.
The total production of avocados was over 14,000 tons in 2019.

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